The Ark
by dax0042
Summary: No summary for this story, but it is a one shot. Please leave reviews.


This one-shot is a Mass Effect story playing the final scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Shepard is Indiana Jones and Miranda is Marian Ravenwood. This is what I would imagine if Cerberus found a Prothen artifact known as the Ark.

As Miranda and Shepard stood tied together to a statue of the first Prothen king on a planet called Alpha 5 in the Beta System, Miranda looked at the Cerberus troopers standing around the Ark. She and Shepard had come here under orders to find this Prothen artifact before Cerberus did, but they had walked into a trap, and now they were prisoners inside the temple where the Ark was kept.

"I'm afraid, Shepard," she said.

Shepard smiled. "There's never been a better time for it."

The writing on the Ark glowed an eerie red and blue, but the troopers showed no fear. Shepard turned to watch as a high ranking Cerberus captain named Ray Barns walked toward the Ark. He was dressed in robes that made him look like a priest from the ancient days, but he seemed very tense. Upon reaching the Ark, Ray began to speak in every language known to the galaxy.

"I think he's going to kill us when he activates the Ark," Miranda said, "unless you found a way for us to stop them."

Shepard, barely hearing her, said nothing: there was something else now, something that was beginning to intrude on his mind—the sound of talk and laughter, low and constant, that seemed to be emerging from the Ark. The strange thing was that only he could hear it.

Then the words in his head became clear. It was a warning to him not to look at the Ark when activated. "Miranda, shut your eyes and don't look no matter what you hear," Shepard warned. Miranda looked over her shoulder at him. "Why, what is it?" she asked.

"Just close your eyes!" he snapped. Miranda did as she was told and shut her eyes tightly.

As Ray placed his hand on the Ark, he felt its power in his blood, heating him up. "I want to know this power," he said out loud. Lights around him started to go out, some part of the wall began to shake with such force that the Cerberus troopers began to panic.

"Shepard if we die, I want you to know something," Miranda said. Shepard smiled. "I know that you love me even though Tali is my wife," he said, still smiling.

Right then and there, the Ark burned with power. It blinded Ray on the spot and energy waves shot through the area. The screams of dying Cerberus troopers were heard as beams of light filled the room. Miranda and Shepard were stricken with fear, but they dared not open their eyes. They could hear Ray's screams of agony echoing across the temples walls. Then all was quiet; just like the valleys the Reapers burned up when they came to take away humans.

Miranda and Shepard felt the restraints around them fall off. When they moved away from it, the statue crumbled until it ceased to exist. Shepard turned to the Ark and slowly opened his eyes. "I see why the Reapers never came here. They knew what would happen if they tried to use the Ark."

Miranda stared at the Ark. It was shining with an intensity that suggested great power and a warning, a warning filled with menace.

Shepard turned and stared at Miranda.

She was shocked to see what the Ark had created. Wreckage, ruin, death. She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. There was nothing to say. Nothing.

"Normandy, this is Shepard. Miranda and I need pick up," Shepard said. "Miranda, we must warn the council about the Ark."

"I agree with you there, Shepard," she said.

A few hours later, they were picked up and brought to the Citadel. Shepard was ordered to report what he found on Alpha 5 to the council, but he knew if he told them, they would not listen.

"We appreciate your report, Commander Shepard," the Asari councilor said. "And we assure you that we will have the Ark dismantled."

Shepard nodded and glanced first at the council, then at Garrus Vakarain, who only shook his head.

Tali stepped forward to address the council. "I still don't understand why you don't let my people and the Geth study the Ark?" she said, crossing her arms. The council looked at the people around the room and at each other.

"It's not for your people to study, but we will have it studied," the Turian council member said evasively.

"This isn't some toy you got," Kasumi Goto warned. This made the council uneasy because she was well known throughout the galaxy. "It must be either destroyed or studied."

The Salarain council member nodded. "We have our top men working on it right now."

"Name them," Thane Krios said. He could clearly tell that they were lying about working on the ark because he was an assassin like no other, and knew liars when he saw them.

"Yeah," Grunt chuckled loudly. "I love dealing with men who don't keep their word." Then he noticed the Salarain council member stepping back a bit. "And I especially know how to deal with Salarains."

"We assure you that the Ark will never fall into Cerberus hands. And it's power—if we can see Shepard's data and descriptions of it—will be analyzed in due course," the Asari council member said calmly. With those final words from the council, Shepard and his crew left for the Normandy.

"Damn the council!" Jack shouted as the crew entered the ship's airlock. "In all my life I have never see such a pathetic group of pencil necks."

"I see that you feel uneasy with their decision, but we are but mere pawns in their game of politics," Samara said. She was very familiar with the council, but even she was angry. The Ark had to be studied or more people would lose their lives.

Tali looked at Shepard, "Forget the Ark, because you need to hear the good news I have for you," she said taking his hand in hers.

"What is it, Tali," Shepard asked with a smile. She giggled. "You're going to be the father of our child."

The minute Shepard and the rest of the crew heard the news they all forgot about the Ark and went to celebrate.

However, the Ark was not being studied, it was being handed over to Cerberus who had bribed the council into giving them it. The Illusive Man smiled happily, knowing that he had beat Shepard this time, but what would the future hold? Only God knew that answer.


End file.
